Veloforte Mixed Plant Power Pack

Veloforte's Mixed Plant Power Pack is a great option for fuelling your body during rides. Not only are they packing some excellent macronutrients, they're also vegan – ideal for those of you who avoid ingesting animal products – and the combination of natural ingredients in each bar makes for an incredible taste and texture. They're pricey, but the cost per bar reduces if you buy in bulk.

I always take some form of energy food with me on longer rides, so I can stay strong until the end without the dreaded brick wall. This usually consists of a banana, some dried apricots or a half a peanut butter sandwich folded into a bar shape. Or all three if the ride is longer, or there's no cake stop.

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In the past, I've tried myriad energy and recovery bars, but I've never really taken to them – they're generally expensive, usually taste a bit funny (in my opinion) and on longer rides tend to make me feel a little sick.

A lot of these products also contain milk or eggs, which for me, as a vegan, is a good reason to avoid them, though there are certainly a lot more plant-based options nowadays.

One of these is Veloforte, a relative newcomer to the energy and recovery food scene, which boasts a product lineup free from dairy and gluten, with no preservatives or additives. Some of its products do contain egg whites or honey, but there are plenty of vegan-only options too. A big tick from me, then.

A standout option among its vegan selection is this Mixed Plant Power Pack: three vegan energy bars consisting of the Avanti, Pronto and Zenzero, each designed to fuel your body for long rides. Nutritionally they're similar, with a few key differences that make some of them better suited to certain situations – more on that later.

Stats

If you're a keen observer of your daily macronutrients, and you like to ensure you meet them, you'll be pleased to know that Veloforte clearly displays the most important numbers on the front of each of its bars, so you can easily track what you consume.

In the case of the Plant Power Pack, depending on the bar you choose you're rewarded with 5-5.3g protein and 37-45.8g of carbs. According to Veloforte you need about 45-60g for medium intensity exercise, rising to 60-90g for higher intensity exercise.

With each bar containing about 40g on average, Veloforte recommends consuming a third of a bar every 20 minutes to keep fuelled on longer sessions.

> How to eat right for sportives and long rides

We reviewed the Veloforte Classico energy bar a few years back, and although that bar packs 50g of carbs, which is a bit higher than its vegan counterpart, nutritionally it's weaker in almost every other area.

Fat content (we're talking good fats here, not the nasty saturated variety) is 2-3g higher with the Mixed Plant Power Pack. Fibre is also higher in two of the bars (over double the amount in the Pronto), and protein is a gram higher; every bit counts.

The takeaway here is that the Mixed Plant Power Pack is nutritionally well balanced. And as I mentioned earlier, some of them are also packing hidden powers too.

First up the Pronto, which contains Matcha tea and offers 80mg of natural caffeine to perk you up in an instant (Veloforte says this is equivalent to an espresso). This might be a good choice if you need that extra caffeine hit when there's no coffee shop on your route.

Then there's the Avanti, which I'd argue is an even more crucial choice of bar for those who, like me, suffer from low sodium levels during intense rides. It contains 37mg of sodium to help replace salt lost through extreme sweating, so it's good if you sweat a lot (more so on hot days), or if you're more susceptible to losing salt through your sweat.

Of course, you can easily just add electrolytes to your water bottle, but it's handy to have another option when your drink runs out.

Most health organisations in the UK worth their salt, so to speak, recommend that you don't exceed 2.5g, or 2,500mg, of sodium each day. The Pronto's 37mg offering is, then, pretty minuscule when compared to Veloforte's own electrolyte powder which provides 350mg per serving.

Taste

Macro stats aside, how do the bars actually taste? Given that over the course of a five to six-hour ride you'll have to eat several of them, whether you can stomach them or not is arguably one of the most important factors.

It's subjective, of course, but for me, Veloforte has seriously knocked it out of the park in the taste department. That might be down to some magical combination of ingredients, but more likely it's because the bars only contain natural plant-based goodness – namely, whole nuts, whole dried fruits and some key spices.

Each bar has a unique flavour, but none of them overpower your taste buds in any one regard. They all taste great, but the Zenzero was the standout for me, simply because I love the combination of lemon and ginger, which gives the fruit and nut base a subtly sweet and tangy flavour.

> Read more road.cc reviews of energy & recovery bars here

I'd happily go for one of these bars as a snack option any time of the day if I was feeling peckish, without feeling guilty about it.

Unlike other energy bars I've eaten, the Veloforte bars also have a nice texture that doesn't stick to your tongue.

Crucially – in terms of snacking during a ride – the consistency of these bars is just right. They don't crumble away as soon as you open the packet. Nor are they so dense that you can barely move your jaws when you want to chew.

Value

The downside, as with many of these energy bars, is the price – at £2.49 per bar, Velforte's plant offerings are as expensive as it gets, it seems. They're a bit pricier than the aforementioned Veloforte Classico, although as I pointed out, carbs aside, the macros certainly seem to be more in the Mixed Plant Power Pack's favour. (And if you buy in bulk, the price reduces to around £2.25 per bar.) Editor's note: Veloforte do offer free UK delivery on orders of £15 or more – at £7.49 two Mixed Plant Power Packs come in at 2p short so you'd have to buy three to qualify for free postage. 

If you want a slightly bigger protein hit, the Clif bar is a good shout. You get a similar carb dosage as with the Veloforte vegan bars, but there's twice the amount of protein (10g), though you do sacrifice a couple of grams of fat. Clif bars are £1.99 each, so a bit cheaper. Most of the options are vegan and I think they also taste pretty good, but they're not on the same playing field as the Veloforte stuff in my opinion.

A cheaper option still would be the Pursu Banana Endurance Bar, which works out at £1.78 per bar. It's vegan and apparently tasty too, though each bar only packs half the number of carbs of the Veloforte bars, so you'll need to eat more of them to get what you need on longer rides.

Conclusion

Make no mistake, these bars are expensive, and I'm sure many of you in the comments will be ranting and raving about just making your own, or taking dried fruits or nuts in a zip-lock. And that's perfectly fine – nobody is stopping you from doing that.

But, and it's a big but (ahem), the Veloforte bars genuinely make eating on the bike (or off it) more enjoyable, and easier, and I think that's definitely worth paying for.

Personally, I would still mix it up with cheaper whole fruits or nuts, but it's certainly useful to add another string to your nutritional bow.

Verdict

Incredible taste, great texture, and packing just the right macros for fuelling your all-day rides